To Lose the Madness
Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity
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- USD 3.99
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- USD 3.99
Descripción editorial
In this career-defining work that eventually went on to become a TEDx Talk at Yale University, Browning explores the breaking point every mind has after finding her own limit during a gauntlet of traumatic events. Pulled out of this blast-crater moment in her life by a friend, she is brought away from the insanity and deep into the snowy Sangre de Cristo Mountains where, standing in front of a herd of wild buffalo, she comes face to face with the terms we all must come to surrounding the loss we face in this life. Offering no answers and seeking no pity, Browning lays herself bare in this radically authentic offering. She carries restricted subjects such as miscarriage, mental illness, and suicide out of the silence by offering her own private journey as an example of the power of transcendence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this spellbinding book, poet and novelist Browning (The Castoff Children) spares no detail in telling the story of her descent into profound grief as one loss piled upon another. The breakdown of her eight-year romantic relationship on the heels of her miscarriage is compounded by a tangle of health complications (abdominal surgery, a severely fractured leg) and a web of psychological disorders she waited years to have properly treated. Browning likens her attempt to heal after these events to "a search for God something elusive, divine, and that may or may not exist." Her sometimes-depressing observations will ring true to anyone who has suffered a trauma. Though she never gives up hope, she takes a realistic approach to recovery, and her depiction of how she made her way through reveals all she suffered. Though small, this effective and plainspoken memoir is densely packed with tales of harrowing experiences (particularly her diagnosis with C-PTSD and treatment using eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing) that require emotional, intellectual, and spiritual investments on the part of the reader. Browning's journey of recovery will be of help to anyone looking for courage in difficult times.
